Apparatus for diverting mineral wool from blow rooms



Octn 5, 1948e H. R. HARNER ETAL v 2,459,511

,APPARATUS FOR DIVERTING HINERL woo:J FROM snow noous Filed Jan. 24, 1945 2 sheets-snm -1 Oct. 5, 1948. H. R; HARNr-:R ETAL 2,450,51l

APPARATUS FOR DIVERTING "MINERAL WOOL FROM BLOW ROOMS Filed Jan. 24, 1945 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 ATTORN Patented Oct. l 1948 l 2.11am

APPARATUS FOR DIVERTING MINERAL/ f WOOL FROM BLOW ROOMS Harold R. Hamer, Ralph L. Lindemuth, and -Alton L. Jones, Joplin, Mo., allilnors 'to The Eagle-Picker Company, Cincinnati, Ohio, a

\ corporation of Ohio Application January 24, 1945, Serial No. 574,412

l `Inthe art of making mineral wool a. stream of molten slag or rock is customarily atomized by a iet of steam. The threads so formed are blown is called the blow room. Heretofore it has been 'customary to removey all of the wool from the blow room by a single route, usually a conveyor. This system works very well when all of the wool is intended to be for the fabrication oa single product which is produced in volume sufficient to utilize the entire output. When, however, a number e? products are to be madesimultaneously and have slightly diilerent requirements in the kind of mineral wool necessary for best results, the conventional system has grave faults. The class oi wool must be separated outside of the apparatus in which the wool is primarily made. This entails great expense and often considerable hand labor. It is the object of the present apparatus to perform this separation immediatelyadjacent the blow room with an apparatus attached thereto. The apparatus of our invention merely performs two functions, i. e., separating the output of the blow chamber and simultaneously relieving the internal pressure on that chamber so that the flow oi wool from the atomizing jet into the chamber is expedited.

Many mineral wool products furthermore can- .not be made at high enough rate to utilize the full output of any large size cupola, say one producing two tons of molten charge per hour. Some operations can use only 500 pounds per hour. To slow down a large cupolato any such low production, or to maintain and operate a small cupola, increases cost and operating diculties. By means oi our invention, we maintain high volume production into a single large blow room, and divert therefrom the wool needed for low volume l operations.

' by the force of the jet into a large chamber which l '2 Claims. (Cl. 154-27)y Referring to the accompanying drawings,

Figure 1 is a side elevation showing a diversion unit in detail. Y

Figure 2 is a plan view oi a blowroomvshowing diagrammatically, three diversion installations each on a di'erent side of the room.

Iii is a conventional cupola from which a stream il of molten slag iiows near the bottom Vinto a jet of steam i2. I3 is the chamber usually called a blow room which receives the lamentized products of the interaction oi the steam :let and the molten slag or rock. This product is usually debe drawn from a blow room, leaving the bulk of the production move out of the blow room on the conventional -bottom conveyor. In some instances, however, several such diversion lines may be drawn from a single blow room, thus enabling the simultaneous production of several mineral wool products. y

The present invention is intended, for example,

'for an operation that requires a wool that is iree from the so-called shot which is composed of small irregular but often spherical granules of molten slag or rock. The manufacture of insulating blankets demands, for example, a wool that is free from shot. Such a grade is desired ior many other manufacturing purposes.

livered at an upward angle of about 45, id indicating the stream oi woolA projected into the blow room. The stream it drops onto the surface ot a belt conveyor i5 which runs on pulleys it along the bottom oi the blow room and projects forwardly therefrom so as to be able-to deliver the wool from the belt by gravity at ii to the surface of a cross conveyor it which carries the wool to a basic manufacturing operation, for example the preparation of insulating batts. i

The apparatus as so far described is entirely conventional. The remainder of this description relates to our invention.

Near or on the top of the blow room either at the front side or rear thereof there is a vent pipe it ci large rdiameter to which is connected a fan 2t which is preferably of the centrifugal sepa rating type (i. e. fly-ash fan). This fan delivers 'by a spout 2i into a cyclone separator 22 from which the shot can be separated from the hopper bottom 23.

From the top of cyclone separator 22 an outlet pipe 2t extends in a preferably arcuate path which ends at the apex of a conical hood 25. The hood is located at a point which is just above the beginning of a conveyor at 2t leading to a place convenient to any further manufacturing operations that may have to be performed upon the product after it is in satisfactory form. The conveyor 25 is made preferably of wire screen and is at least as wide as any blanket that is desired to be made from the wool deposed upon it. Within the conical hood 25 there is a vertical adjustable conical deiiector 211 mounted upon a vertical rod 28 which may be located in a number of vertical positions at different heights b'y means of a rack and pinion wisdom of woolrparticies iiowing in air from the top o! the blow room. 3i is the "cup" for applying the vacuunrl to the under side of belt 26 to a point between the pulleys 82. 33 is the outlet for a suction hose from the cup 3i to an exhaust Ian.

The operation of the device is as follows: A proportion of the mineral wool floating in the air of the blow room is caught in the suction of fan 20 and enters a jet pipe I9 under this inuence. The amount or proportion of wool which is so pulled out of the blow room depends upon the speed and capacity of a fan 20, the diameter of jet pipe I9, and the anglevof the stream I4. All oi' these variations may be adjusted without departing from the spirit of the invention, and dampers, rheostats and other speed and volume control devices may be provided in appropriate places as is well known v to those skilled in the art. The Ian 20 and cyclone separator operate in the usual manner for the purpose of separating out the shot by centrifugal force. The shot is well adapted to being so handled, since it is granular and of considerably higher apparent density than the wool itself.

The hood 25 iulillls the function of spreading out the stream of wool delivered by. pipe 24 tc, an area at least as large as the sheet of wool or blanket to.be formed. An upward or downward adjustment of the conical defiector 21 may be necessary to consummate a uniform deposition of wool, but this adjustment can readily be performed by skilled operators. 'I'his deposition is assisted by the suction from the cup 3i which extends over the complete area defined by the demands of the blanket to be produced.` The suction also holds the blanket close to the wire screen of the belt 28 so that the latter can easily move the formed blanket in a continuous strip from under the hood 25 so that the strip may be subdivided outside of' the hood into piecesv o! blankets of any desired length. The absence of shot in blankets is very much to be desired, since their presence detracts from the insulating value of the wool and adds to its weight, and often it is desired to get as much insulating value in a given thickness and weight of blanket as possible.

It is to be understood that the conveyor Il and I8, as well as the jet I2, fan 2 0, and cyclone 22, are to be continuously operated thus insuring a continuous output of a mineral wool. sheet, the

thickness of which is governed by the `rate ofy deposition of the wool and the speed of conveyor belt 26, all of which may be adjusted.

We claim as our invention: y

1. In combination with .a'mineral wool blow room, an apparatus connected to an elevated point in one of the walls of said room, said apparatus comprising suction means ior exhausting a portion of the wool contenta of the blow room into the apparatus, pneumatic centrifugal means for purifying the wool oi' shot, pipe means for delivering the so puriiled wool to a conveyor, distributing means at the delivery end of said pipe for distributing the wool uniformly on the said conveyor, a foraminous conveyor positioned below said distributing means adapted to receive wool deposited thereon =by the distributing means and to form a continuous strip oi wool and suction means arranged on the under side of said conveyor to suck continuously the air from the stream of wool being deposited on the upper conveyor surface through the conveyor belt whereby to speed strip formation.

2. In combination with a mineral woolvblow room, an apparatus connected to a point in the upper part of a wall of said room, said apparatus comprising an exhaust fan, a cyclone separator connected to the delivery end of said fan to separate shot from wool passing through it, a pipe arranged to deliver de-shotted wool from said separator, a hood attached to the exit end of said delivery pipe, a generally conical regulator within said hood, a rack and pinion adjustment for said regulator supported by said pipe whereby the height of the regulator may be adjusted within the hood to control the distribution of wool delivered to thelhood, a foraminous conveyor arranged below said hood, a suction chamber arranged below that part of the top surface of said conveyor which is covered by said hood, and an exhaust fan for creating reduced atmospheric pressure in said suction chamber.

HAROLD R. HARNER.

RALPH L, LINDEMUTH.

ALTON' L. JONES.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:-

UNITED STATES PATENTS 

